US experts in investigations of wildlife trafficking and enforcement of trafficking laws are about to begin duty in Bangkok and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, marking a step forward in implementing the Obama administration's recently announced National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking.
US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe told the House Foreign Affairs Committee February 26 that overseas deployment of enforcement officers further demonstrates U.S. commitment to help other governments preserve rare animals. With congressional and State Department support, Ashe said, his service hopes to have two agents in Asia, two in Africa and one in Latin America by the end of 2014.
Organized criminal and terrorist organizations have rapidly increased slaughter of animals such as elephants and rhinoceros in response to soaring black market prices for animal horns and other parts valued in some cultures. Wildlife trafficking now looms as an international security threat because of the amount of money involved and the assets that criminal networks are able to acquire.
Long-term assignment of U.S. agents to work with counterparts overseas is a recent development, but USFWS has a long-standing involvement in programs to strengthen law enforcement protection for unique resources of the natural world.
"We continue to support the international law enforcement academies in Gaborone, Botswana, and Bangkok, Thailand, which have trained 350 law enforcement officers in wildlife crime investigations since 2002," said Ashe.
USFWS, the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and international partner governments completed an intense trafficking investigation in January. Agents from Africa, Southeast Asia and China jointly participated in Operation Cobra 2, Ashe said, resulting in "more than 400 arrests of wildlife criminals and 350 major wildlife seizures across Africa and Asia."
Operation Cobra 2 is not a one-time operation. It is part of ongoing U.S. support to help regional governments develop greater capabilities to attack trafficking crimes, which occur across national boundaries, disregarded by roving animals and the criminal gangs attempting to slaughter them.
Ashe is a co-chair of a cross-government task force, which delivered the trafficking strategy details in mid-February. Ashe shares the position with counterparts from the U.S. State Department and the Justice Department, who also appeared before the committee February 26
Courtesy All Africa News
